In Episode 317 of the Peacewarts Lab on the Peace is Here podcast, host Avis Kalfsbeek takes a sharp, satirical look at how modern Silicon Valley billionaires are resurrecting Ayn Rand's hyper-individualist playbook from Atlas Shrugged to justify AI-driven wealth extraction.

Examining modern tech commentary—including discussions on podcasts like Peter Diamandis's Moonshots—Avis contrasts the tech industry's claims of magical abundance with the realities of high-tech "arbitrage," exposing how corporate models turn shared human knowledge into private profit. Rather than abandoning technology or falling for trickle-down promises, Avis offers a compelling alternative: reclaiming machine intelligence and shared resources through The Commons. From proposals to send the tech titans off to Mars to previews of next year's Peacewarts 201 curriculum, this episode lays the groundwork for communal stewardship over corporate exploitation.

Commons Resources:

• Read for free:Free, Fair, and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons by David Bollier and Silke Helfrich — https://freefairandalive.org
• Read for free:Governing the Commons by Elinor Ostrom — https://www.actu-environnement.com/media/pdf/ostrom_1990.pdf
• Documentary Video on YouTube:Common Struggles: The Meaning of Common Goods — "Common Struggles" is a documentary that tells the story of the search for the meaning of Common Goods (Commons) in Central and Eastern Europe by European Alternatives (EA) — https://youtu.be/MeMT9YQaphM?si=gKqwb41GnRpiujB3

This episode was created with the help of my digital partner, G (Gemini).

Music: ElevenLabs by Avis Kalfsbeek